All India Forward Bloc

The All India Forward Bloc is a socialist and left-wing nationalist political party in India, founded on 22 June 1939 by former Indian National Congress member Subhas Chandra Bose. The party held its first conference in Nagpur, Berar in 1940, and Bose sought Soviet support for the Indian independence struggle. When Joseph Stalin refused to send aid to the Indians in 1942, Bose reluctantly courted the friendship of Nazi Germany, which sought to weaken the British by any means possible during World War II. Bose led the Azad Hind puppet state from Singapore and formed an army to fight the British, who had banned the party in 1942. The party was revived after the war's end, although it was divided between a Marxist faction and a left-wing nationalist faction. The party was weakened by divisions after the war, and it would fail to become a major party.